Letters: Texting, Tuckerton, Syria, Obamacare

Nearly 9 in 10 drivers polled said they witnessed other drivers using mobile devices while their vehicle was moving.Star-Ledger file

No surprises in texting study

A new study (“Texting rampant among young Jersey drivers, survey finds,” Sept. 12) surprised everyone with a driver’s license and an intuitive grasp of the obvious by uncovering the closely guarded secret that many motorists, especially teens, text and talk while driving. Astonishing. Who would have thought that the driver sitting at the green light with her head bent forward and no hands on the steering wheel, or the guy weaving and gesticulating inside his car, might be doing any of that?

How about we actually enforce existing laws against driving and texting, or talking without a hands-free device? How many people have to die or lose limbs before legislators make the penalties so prohibitive that the texter is no longer permitted, or can no longer afford, to drive?

Given the revenue windfall, I’m surprised the towns don’t make such enforcement a priority.

Nat Silber, Verona

Governor invited to Tuckerton

Eleven months have passed since Hurricane Sandy came ashore just below Tuckerton. We refer to our town as “ground zero,” a not-so-veiled reference to the horror inflicted on New York City 12 years ago. While ours was a different kind of horror, the lingering effects of the trauma are just as real and just as devastating as 9/11.

Many of our residents are still displaced. Many are overwhelmed by the quagmire of endless red tape to get their homes back to a livable condition and their lives back to some form of normalcy.

Storm survivors have been worn down by the system with no real advocates on their side. Insurance payouts were substantially less than expected. Elevation regulations are unclear. Residents are at their wits’ end.

It has not escaped our notice that Gov. Chris Christie has been to wealthier neighborhoods to the north multiple times, but he has yet to visit Tuckerton. We are asking again that he come to Tuckerton and bring with him an army of professional advocates, so that we can offer real relief to storm-weary survivors. Our most vulnerable residents are not “stronger than the storm.” They need more help.

Merideth S. Mueller, pastor, First Presbyterian Church of Tuckerton

History will judge us

However intractable the Syrian civil war seems, and however tired Americans are of war, it is grotesque that the Western world stands by, doing nothing, while 100,000 people have been slaughtered, overwhelmingly by President Bashar Assad’s forces.

While death rains down from airplanes in the sky and the muzzles of tanks on land, we debate fine distinctions between killing people with sarin gas, rather than “just” blowing them apart with high explosives and bullets.

As generations have wondered why nothing was done while Jews were shot and gassed by the Nazis, or when Africans were hacked to death in Rwanda and Burundi, so too will our posterity look back upon us with shame and wonder why nothing was done to try to stop the Syrian slaughterhouse.

William Volonte, West New York

Save Syria’s children

There are no good guys fighting in the Syrian conflict. Both sides are terrible.

The “good guys” are the children who are being endangered and murdered by both sides. How about a “kindertransport” to get the children out of that war zone?

Many of the World War II kindertransport children were not formally adopted because their parents were still alive when they left. Very few had parents after the war, and sometimes reuniting parents and children after 1945 was problematic. Some children felt abandoned when, in fact, their parents had done the only thing they could to save their children’s lives.

I suggest we get Syria’s children out of harm’s way until the civil war is over — if it ever is.

Rabbi Bernhard Rosenberg, Edison

Call out the Democrats

I was not surprised to see the liberal bias in the op-ed by Nelson Lichtenstein, “Old tactics emerge to fight ‘Obamacare’ ” (Sept. 11). This teacher of history attempts to equate the current effort to dismantle the Affordable Care Act with similar efforts to derail the civil rights legislation of the 1960s.

Lichtenstein refers to “Republican opponents of Obamacare,” House Republicans having taken 40 votes to repeal the law, “Republican legislatures and governors in the South rejecting the law,” “Republican-controlled states refusing to institute the exchanges” and the “Georgia insurance commissioner bragging to a crowd of fellow Republicans.”

Yet when he looks to the 1960s, he refers to civil rights detractors as “Southern white politicians,” “Southern governors and legislators,” “segregationaists,” “integration opponents” and “Southern voter registrars.” Not once is the word “Democrat” mentioned.

Daniel Hodge, Union

‘Obamacare’ will work

The GOP is getting frantic over the Affordable Care Act. Again, they’ve invoked the infamous Sarah Palin “death panels.” I want to talk about my end-of-life care and will pay for it, but not everyone can afford it and today’s medicine is fee-for-service.

Rationing? Health care is rationed now by insurance companies and elective surgery must wait its turn. My Canadian relatives love their insurance plans. And no, you can’t become a Canadian citizen without meeting their standards.

I’ve encountered walk-in clinics being used instead of primary doctors because patients cannot afford a primary.

Should my grandchildren resort to the emergency room when they leave their mother’s insurance policy? Who pays for the ER? We all do, in higher costs and lack of continuing care. Under “Obamacare,” we get vaccinations. Today, we read about outbreaks of mumps among un-vaccinated children. Will measles be next?